Epilogue

You've never quite been the same, Lizzy, since the passing of the Commodore. There's some glint left from your eyes, some glitter gone. Was it the passing of youth, the departure of innocence, lost in the fray with Davy Jones?

Not quite right. You still possess the former, captivatingly so, I might add, and the latter, we both know you never had much use for.

I knew that from the beginning, luv.

Peas in a pod.

'Course, once I felt certain I knew a great many things about you, only to be surprised time and again. Recall that sultry night in Port Royal, when I dropped in on you, freshly sprung from your new husband's jail? I couldn't quite bring myself to escape, not without posing you the offer of a life time.

Come with me I'd said.

Nothing appealed to me more that night, than squirreling away with the Commodore's young bride. I offered you freedom, the freedom I thought you'd requested of me. Imagine my surprise, when you picked James instead.

From anyone else, I could have understood. Nothing said stability, status, power, prudence, like James Norrington. Right appealing, to a normal lass.

But you were never a normal lass, were you, luv?

Rejected and dejected, I flashed a good humored smile at you, tipped my hat, and disappeared into the moonlit night. It rankled me a bit, darlin'. More than a bit. Nipped at me ego. I knew the cloth you were cut from; a much more similar weave to me own, than the Commodore's. I couldn't understand what could possibly have incited you to stay, in a place you'd once described to me, one rum-soaked night illuminated by firelight, as a gilded prison.

I knew it couldn't possibly be fear.

I rather doubted it to be love as well.

And so I laughed and left you to your new husband, with an inkling we would meet again someday, probably sooner than later. I had no idea the circumstances would bode so dire. Leave such a dark stain on all our memories, all our consciences.

I wonder what I would have done, that day I pulled you from a potential watery grave, could I have known how our destinies would intertwine? Could I have known you would kill me with a kiss someday, would I have tossed you back to the fishes?

Perhaps not. Perhaps there are some things worth dying for. Your kisses just might be one of them.

Only recently, have I truly come to understand your choice that night. You have told me now, some of your life with James Norrington, in a tone that indicates you know life will never be so sweet, so simple, ever again. It won't, luv, believe me. Time only entangles, only complicates, even if only just the wires in our own heads. It's enough, believe me. Well enough.

Let me tell you the bit I understand. The challenge. I comprehend that well enough, for it's something of the same thing I wanted to do with you. I wanted to show you what life can really offer, and not just what young lasses are taught behind closed doors, to perpetuate society's securely clamped fetters.

But what fool could ever mistake you for a mere strumpet? A glittery prize? A breeding mare?

James did, at first.

Sounds like you set him right, luv. More than right. But the game turned on you too. The most unexpected thing. You never counted on actually falling in love.

We never do.

By helping Will stab the thump thump of Davy Jones, I seemed to selflessly let go of my dreams of immortality, and sailing the sea forever. But Lizzy luv, I'm sure you know by now the conniving in my black pirate heart.

I'm sure you know by now, it was an orchestrated ploy. A perfect plot. It was the only way I could stay with you.

And now by some strange turn of fate, you are here, with me, sailing on my ship. I look back to watch you at the helm. One of my greatest loves, steering another, through a third. Do not ask me to place ranks, darling, be flattered enough you're included in the trio with the Pearl and the sea.

No longer a girl, but a Pirate King, you seem at home here on the Pearl. You pull your weight with everyone else, your hands roughened from scrubbing, tying knots, towing lines, manning the helm. No one disputes your place here, and no one but I dares touch you. Someone we picked up out of Panama thought he would try, and you quickly showed him his place with the business end of your sword.

You are even mine in some way, when the sun sinks below that horizon we chase with no end. For whatever reason, maybe not quite love, but not solely lust, you allow me to kiss those fine lips, to caress that svelte curved body beneath the skivvies of a man. But when we are finished, lying in the quiet, I know you cry beside me, once you think I have fallen to slumber. You do not reach to me for comfort, and I've been around long enough to know it means a woman is crying for another man.

Sometimes I hate it, luv, that I wish you would reach for me.

But I know I will never have you quite the way I want you. Never all my own. Forgive me, luv, it's always been me nature to want more than what's good for me. But I am a pirate, and that means I take what I can. I take what you offer, and know better than to push for any more than that. Matter of speaking, out of all the men in your life who ever wanted something of you, the Commodore, Will, Sao Feng, even your father, I am the last one standing.

I'd like to keep it that way.

Savvy?

Fin

A/N: Thank you to all my lovely reviewers, it's been an interesting ride!